Instant messaging systems have proliferated over the past several years, with several commercial offerings available today. These systems offer individual users the ability to communicate with other users using text, audio, video, and other types of multimedia data. Examples include free offerings such as Skype and Google Talk, as well as commercial, enterprise systems such as the Microsoft Office Communication Server (hereinafter ‘OCS’) and its associated client Microsoft Office Communicator.
Typically, such systems provide a so-called “presence engine” as well as the ability to communicate via text-based messages. The presence engine is responsible for registering the status of a user (e.g., available to communicate, idle, unavailable, etc.) and reporting it to other users (co-workers, users declared in the system as ‘friends’ of the specific user). A user can typically initiate communication just by typing a text message in a window, addressed to another user. The intended recipient of the message will be notified by the software and will be offered the opportunity to reply. These systems are referred to as “Instant Messaging” or IM systems.
Most IM systems offer the ability to conduct text-based conversations among groups of users, i.e., with groups of more than two users at a time. Several IM systems offer the ability to combine the text-based communication with audio communication whereas others offer the ability to use video as well.
Due to the complexity in offering multi-point video communication, most systems allow multi-user audio communication (e.g., Skype or Google Talk) but only person-to-person video communication. The technical problems in multi-point video are significant, especially when desktop operation is desired (a requirement for an IM system).
Vidyo, Inc. (‘Vidyo’) has developed a solution for videoconferencing which surmounts the technical challenges associated with low-delay, multi-point video communication on the desktop. Using Scalable Video Coding and the so-called Scalable Video Communication Server (SVCS) architecture implemented in Vidyo's VidyoRouter™ system and described in part in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,593,032, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, the Vidyo system allows telepresence-quality multi-point video communication even from regular PC and Mac desktops. It is thus suitable for use in a desktop-based IM system.
A problem, however, is that the Vidyo system—like any videoconferencing-only system—is a system designed and implemented separately from the IM system. It is therefore desirable to provide a system and method through which a multi-point video and audio communication system can be seamlessly integrated with the operation of an IM system, so that a user would not even perceive that two different systems are actually used.